37 thoughts on “Sunday Serendipity”

1. thank you, jack.  indeed, good music for a good day.

2. a derby note from USAtoday:

   After winning the 148th Kentucky Derby, Rich Strike’s trainer Eric Reed should understandably feel like he’s standing on Cloud Nine. When you make history and floor the entire horse racing and betting sphere in the process, the world is your oyster.
   But with great glory comes a degree of adversity and, in this case, a terrible tragedy.
   Before Rich Strike kicked it into gear in unprecedented fashion down the stretch on Saturday, Reed once had to salvage the impossible from the ground up. As impressive as his horse’s run was, this is about the horror he endured before capturing horse racing’s most prestigious title:
   In late 2016, on his farm in Lexington, a massive barn fire claimed the lives of 24 horses under his care.
   More from WKYT News:
   “The owner of the training center, Eric Reed says they rescued as many as they could before the flames took over.
   ‘My other guys were helping and the horses would run back in naturally and we would have to take them back out. The barn started collapsing and we just had to call it off,’ Reed said.
   Reed says there were 36 horses inside the barn at the time, but only close to a dozen made it out alive.”
   Oh my goodness. I can’t even comprehend the courage that compels you to run back toward danger after escaping to safety. It’s simply unfathomable. I wouldn’t have blamed Reed if he gave up on training then and there for pure trauma’s sake.
   A half-decade later, he and Rich Strike are co-owners of the famed rose garland. What a remarkable twist of fate after so much heartache.

3. looking like fire itself burning up the track, rich strike vengeance for reed’s losses

   

4. Happy day to all you mothers out there. Enjoy the day- you earned it. 
   Jack, thanks for providing wonderful music from the wonderful Wolfgang A. What could be a better background for musical background for the moms who had to raise brats like many of us, and you all know who I’m talking to – yeah, I’m talking to you. 

5. in case you missed it

   After Justice Samuel Alito’s leaked draft opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade, a flashback to 13th century England shows the exact moment three men (Benedict Cumberbatch, Andrew Dismukes, James Austin Johnson) vote to outlaw abortion.

6. and more

   Weekend Update: Roe v. Wade Leaked Draft Opinion, Vladimir Putin to Undergo Cancer Surgery – SNL

7. The history lesson Republicans don’t want you to see.

8. https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/06/us/california-civil-rights-lawsuit-cedars-sinai/index.html

   “In 2020, the maternal death rate for Black women was 55.3 deaths per 100,000 live births — 2.9 times the rate for White women, according to a report from the new National Center for Health Statistics released in February by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”

   If 55 people (or a dozen) out of every 100,000 people died because of a product they used or a food they ate, it would be off the market.

9. Mike Schmidt on Twitter has popped the lid off of Sarah Palin and McCain’s daughter and it is really some nice stuff to read.  

   Did I say nice? I meant REALLY nice.

10. Why, it’s just plumb beautiful how  Schmidt is slicing and dicing those two .  He also is pulling in names like Manafort and Deripaska and a good many others.  Nicole Wallace appears to be named here as a cognizant ally who was in the thick with him.  
    Bravo Schmidt.

11. Reading all that actually felt just like it used to feel to read the Sunday funny papers.  
    lol

12. NoelCaslerComedy
    @caslernoel
    ·
    12h
    Leonard Leo walked into Trump’s NYC office in the days after his ‘16 election with a piece of paper with six names on it. 3 of those names now have lifetime seats on SCOTUS. There’s no way they would be on that list w/o a promise to overturn Roe v. Wade.
    They all lied under oath.

13. Ok ok……but just one. 
    9/
    @MeghanMcCain
    is a bully, entitled, unaccomplished, spoiled and mean. She has rejected her Family’s history of service for a shallow and purposeless celebrity where she trades on a famous name like a fourth generation wannabe clipping coupons while pretending to be an heir

14. Schmidt:
    this will get worse. I am not afraid of any of these people. I will not be afraid of these people. The whole fetid lot of liars, weirdos, loons, militias, religious nuts, fascists and conspiracy theorists, all of them, need to understand something. The rest of us are holding/ the line and we aren’t taking one more fucking step backwards to accommodate this insanity. Not one. The Exhausted Majority is what I’m part of. It’s got Republicans, democrats, independents, new voters and new citizens. It’s made up of people of all faiths, creeds 
     
    4/religions and no religion at all. It is common sense based and we are sick of the bullshit and will not allow a belligerent minority to hijack our Country, our Families, our Kids, our Faiths, our Communities, our unity, our liberty, our bodies and our future. Never.
     
    —Schmidt

16. sturge, i think you meant to laud steve schmidt (not mike who is a journalist at NYT).

    is this it:

    Steve Schmidt Goes Off And Obliterates Meghan McCain (politicususa.com)

17. STEVE SCHMIDT ! ! ! 
    Dammit, I hate when I do dat 

18. wapo:

    UZHHOROD, Ukraine — First lady Jill Biden crossed the border into Ukraine on Sunday, entering an active war zone in a rare move for the spouse of a sitting president.
    Biden entered the country on Mother’s Day from Slovakia after she visited a processing center at the Vysne Nemecke border crossing and met with refugees. Inside Ukraine, she met with Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska, who had not appeared in public since the Russian invasion on Feb. 24.
    […]
    Zelenska praised Biden “for a very courageous act” in coming to Ukraine.
    “We understand what it takes for the U.S. first lady to come here during a war when the military actions are taking place every day, where the air sirens are happening every day, even today,” she said in Ukrainian through an interpreter.
    The unannounced Biden visit came amid a four-day swing through Eastern Europe for the first lady — her highest-profile diplomatic engagement since President Biden took office. She entered Ukraine the day before Russia’s Victory Day, which some officials worry will bring a new, more violent, phase of the war.
    Previous first ladies have made overseas visits to support U.S. troops stationed abroad, but few have visited an active war zone on their own. 
    […]
    President Biden has not traveled to Ukraine since the war began, with aides privately citing the security challenges that a visit would pose. In March, he visited Rzeszow, Poland, which is about 60 miles from the Ukrainian border.
    Biden and other Group of Seven leaders were scheduled to hold a video call with Zelensky later on Sunday. A White House official said the leaders planned to discuss Russia’s ongoing invasion and how the G-7 countries could continue to support Ukraine and levy costs on Moscow.
    [continues]

19. Jack…  that was great!
     
    patd… thanks for bringing the SNL stuff here…  there’s no way I can stay up that late any longer.

20. more celebs visitinhg ukraine

    Rolling Stone

    Following a personal invitation from Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky, U2’s Bono and the Edge visited Kyiv Sunday to perform an acoustic concert in one of the city’s subway stations-turned-bomb shelters.
    “The people in Ukraine are not just fighting for your own freedom, you are fighting for all of us who love freedom,” Bono told the audience, which included soldiers. “We pray that you will enjoy some of that peace soon.”
    […]
    Throughout the intimate set, the U2 duo were joined on their makeshift stage by Ukrainian musicians thrust into military duty due to Russia’s invasion; singer Taras Topolya from the Ukrainian band Antytila were among those singing alongside Bono.
    “President @ZelenskyyUa invited us to perform in Kyiv as a show of solidarity with the Ukrainian people and so that’s what we’ve come to do,” Bono and the Edge tweeted Sunday.
    [continues]

    https://youtu.be/YpAS0p2eZGQ

21. renee, you and me both.  getting hard to even make it thru pbs newshour weekdays without nodding off.

22. the new 1st puppy twitter debut

    It hasn’t taken long for Commander to find his way around the White House. pic.twitter.com/zuCv188EHh

    — President Biden Archived (@POTUS46Archive) May 7, 2022

23. oh yeah, justin was also there

    #BREAKING: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is in Kyiv, where he has just announced the reopening of the Canadian Embassy

    "Having the Canadian flag fly over the streets of Kyiv once again is yet another testament to the strength and solidarity of Canadians and Ukrainians” pic.twitter.com/ZfqlAlybQT

    — Ashleigh Stewart (@Ash_Stewart_) May 8, 2022

24. Hey, I’m a winner in the sign in “is a zero or an O” guessing contest. I finally got it right.
    I must really like todays selection as I posted it back in March. I think the biggest problem with all those algo’s is there tendency to give you the last 10 things and put them in a top40 type repeat.
    Since todays selection was too short, I went back and made a play list of this years spring symphony pieces, I will add to it as I think about it. So here is a day’s music commercial free.
    

25. Thank you Jack

    Love your Sunday contributions

     

26. There is a somewhat interesting outpoint in the leaked judgement as written by Alito.  He refers to “Quickening” as used by his 13th century jurist.  “Quickening” as cited even earlier by St. Thomas in the 1200s doesn’t occur until about 4 1/2 – 5 months (roughly similar to being tickled from the inside).  Back then a fetus lost by whatever cause or a stillborn wasn’t baptized and couldn’t be buried in consecrated ground unless placed in the coffin of a deceased person who had been baptized.  

    In any case, “quickening” is very close to the viability limit of modern medicine at 22-24 weeks. 

27. On this site’s ‘captcha’, it’s always a capital letter “O” and never a number “zero”; tip of the day
     
    WTF does “quickening” have to do with separation of powers?  Oh, they’re just making shit up to justify their agenda, got it, nvm👍

28. Yeah, when a retired carpenter thinks your legal logic is getting a bit sloppy…
    I’ve noticed this on several of recent conservative appointments. They really make you want to go “WTF!!” Somebody needs to tell them they need to step up their game they are embarrassing themselves.
    Jack

29. https://www.texastribune.org/2022/05/06/ken-paxton-attorney-general-state-bar-election/

    “Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the state’s top lawyer, said Friday the state bar was suing him for professional misconduct related to his lawsuit challenging the 2020 presidential election.”

    “A few hours after saying he was being sued by the bar, Paxton’s office announced an investigation into the Texas Bar Foundation for “facilitating mass influx of illegal aliens” by donating money to groups that “encourage, participate in, and fund illegal immigration at the Texas-Mexico border.” The foundation is made up of attorneys and raises money to provide legal education and services. It is separate from the State Bar of Texas, which is an administrative arm of the Texas Supreme Court.”

    “Alistair Dawson, a Houston trial lawyer who is the chair-elect of the Texas Bar Foundation, said in a news release that the foundation was “disappointed to learn that AG Paxton has decided to use taxpayer dollars on a fruitless exercise.” He said the foundation does not receive taxpayer funds and its grants are paid for by donations from Texas lawyers.”

30. https://www.texastribune.org/2022/05/06/texas-democrats-roe-wade-abortion-elections/

    “O’Rourke, who is polling 11 points down from Gov. Greg Abbott, is seizing on a moment that Democrats have long feared was coming — the end of a constitutional protection for the right to have an abortion. But many Democrats said they’re hopeful that the looming threat of such a stunning political sea change could provide the strongest opportunity yet to energize their voters heading into an election year in which Republicans have been expected to dominate in Texas and beyond.”

    “For a lot of people who have believed the courts would backstop the political efforts, they now are thinking differently about who is going to protect these fundamental rights,” said U.S. Rep. Lizzie Pannill Fletcher, D-Houston.”

    “Fletcher said she knows campaigning for abortion rights can win elections in Texas, because she’s done it before. In 2018, she won her Houston congressional district that was formerly held by George H.W. Bush and considered a Republican stronghold. She did so as a staunch advocate for reproductive freedom, drawing upon her experience volunteering for Planned Parenthood.”

    “Abbott, backed by an eight-figure campaign operation that spends lavishly on polling and other data, was noticeably quiet in the immediate firestorm following the leak. In his first known interview on the topic on Tuesday, he exclusively focused his comments on the leaking of the opinion, instead of addressing its substance or impact.”

    Yep. The Republican monsters don’t want to talk about the substance of the document, they want to talk about the leaked. Ain’t it funny when they start whining about their privacy?

    “O’Rourke said the Roe v. Wade news brings the issue of abortion rights even more into focus for voters, including those who were already on his side as well as those who were not.”

    “It’s people who maybe never really thought about this because they could never imagine it would get this bad here in Texas, and now it is,” O’Rourke said in an interview. “I think there are a lot of voters in Texas who will now be listening to what we have to say and thinking about the fact they have an alternative to a governor who has targeted every single woman — whether she’s Democratic, Republican or independent — in the state of Texas.”

31. A doff of the old chapeau to you Jack for thinking about something nice to play every Sunday   And maybe a second doff as well.  muchissimas gracias 
    Consider yourself Double Doffed.

    By the way…….do you know “Free Bird”?

32. now that you mention it.
    

33. With that, here is what I’ve moved on to.
    

34. And Jerry Jeff, Townes and a bunch of other Texas boys.
    Jack

35. https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/08/politics/us-russia-sanctions-media-companies-consulting-services/index.html

    “The US announced a slate of new sanctions against Russia on Sunday, cutting off Kremlin-controlled media outlets from American advertisers and prohibiting the country from using US-provided management and accounting consulting services…”

    “Kremlin-controlled media outlets” like Fluffy Carlson’s pie hole?

36. Free-est bird I ever did see.   

37. NEW THREAD

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